Transcribed from the 1920 Macmillan and Co edition of “The Bab Ballads”, also from “Fifty Bab Ballads” 1884 George Routledge and Sons edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

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CONTENTS

The Bumboat Woman’s Story [214]
The Two Ogres [221]
Little Oliver [229]
Mister William [235]
Pasha Bailey Ben [242]
Lieutenant-Colonel Flare [248]
Lost Mr. Blake [256]
The Baby’s Vengeance [265]
The Captain and the Mermaids [273]
Annie Protheroe [280]
An Unfortunate Likeness [287]
Gregory Parable, LL.D. [294]
The King of Canoodle-dum [301]
First Love [309]
Brave Alum Bey [317]
Sir Barnaby Bampton Boo [324]
The Modest Couple [330]
The Martinet [338]
The Sailor Boy to his Lass [348]
The Reverend Simon Magus [356]
Damon v. Pythias [363]
My Dream [368]
The Bishop of Rum-ti-Foo Again [376]
A Worm will Turn [383]
The Haughty Actor [391]
The Two Majors [399]
Emily, John, James, And I [405]
The Perils of Invisibility [413]
Old Paul and Old Tim [420]
The Mystic Selvagee [426]
The Cunning Woman [433]
Phrenology [440]
The Fairy Curate [446]
The Way of Wooing [454]
Hongree and Mahry [460]
Etiquette [541]

THE BUMBOAT WOMAN’S STORY

I’m old, my dears, and shrivelled with age, and work, and grief,
My eyes are gone, and my teeth have been drawn by Time, the Thief!
For terrible sights I’ve seen, and dangers great I’ve run—
I’m nearly seventy now, and my work is almost done!

Ah! I’ve been young in my time, and I’ve played the deuce with men!
I’m speaking of ten years past—I was barely sixty then:
My cheeks were mellow and soft, and my eyes were large and sweet,
Poll Pineapple’s eyes were the standing toast of the Royal Fleet!

A bumboat woman was I, and I faithfully served the ships
With apples and cakes, and fowls, and beer, and halfpenny dips,
And beef for the generous mess, where the officers dine at nights,
And fine fresh peppermint drops for the rollicking midshipmites.

Of all the kind commanders who anchored in Portsmouth Bay,
By far the sweetest of all was kind Lieutenant Belaye.’
Lieutenant Belaye commanded the gunboat Hot Cross Bun,
She was seven and thirty feet in length, and she carried a gun.